Ihave worked with a number of CEOs during my many years of helping companies improve quality. Although all are different in their leadership styles, when it comes to their attitudes toward excellence, most top leaders fall into one of three categories.

A recent viewing of a Marx Brothers film caused me to reflect on one of the questions I’m frequently asked: “How do you deal with people who are against lean?”

Editor’s note: This article ties in with the new video training series, “Enhancing and Sustaining Lean Improvements While Adding Spark to the Quality Management System” by the author.

Any leader or skilled improvement professional knows that metrics are necessary to define what success looks like, to measure progress toward a defined target, and to assess performance against defined standards.